On the other hand, the web site Minutemanmedia.org of Rowayton, Conn., reports, “A new study conducted at Sonoma State University shows widespread bias in AP news reports favoring U.S. government positions.” Peter Phillips, a sociologist at Sonoma State University, Calif., and director of “Project Censored,” says, “The American people absorb these biases (AP) and make political decisions on skewed understandings.”
AP’s 3,700 employees in some 240 news bureaus are churning out so much copy, one can probably single out a handful of the reports and argue either way as Crittenden or Phillips do. Crittenden’s claim seem patently preposterous but Phillips might be wide of the mark, too, depending on his evidence. Unquestionably, though, Arnett made a strong case against AP’s bias during the Viet Nam war.
Seventy years ago, Curtis MacDougal, the journalism professor at Northwestern University, published a textbook titled “Interpretive Reporting”(MacMillan) that posited it wasn’t enough for reporters to gather the facts; it was incumbent upon them to explain to readers what those facts meant. A lot of journalists attempt to do precisely this, and it’s not an easy trick to be both objective and interpretive, especially when news sources frequently lie and distort.
The objectivity of wire services merits careful scrutiny as so much of this country’s future, as sociologist Phillips points out, will be shaped by what “the wires” tell us about the present. Surely, a wire service’s first allegiance must be to the truth, not the nation-state. These days, it should be noted, multinationals routinely operate in their own interests even when it involves trashing their country of origin. They move offshore to avoid taxes; they transfer jobs to foreign countries to take advantage of cheap labor, etc. Surely a wire service whose primary obligation is to the truth can also transcend any nationalistic allegiance when it gathers and reports the news. Let the politicians scream their heads off.
# (Sherwood Ross is a Miami-based public relations consultant and writer who formerly worked for the Chicago Daily News and for more than a decade contributed weekly reports to several wire services. Reach him at sherwoodr1@yahoo.com)
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